Re-painting the exterior of your home will update it in a way nothing else will, but a spectacular facade requires careful consideration about what other features will make an appearance.
One of the design strategies we use in my design practice is what I call the “sprinkle strategy”. The sprinkle strategy is used beyond your main house colours and is what gives your facade a more cohesive and balanced look.
When renovating your facade, it’s usually best to stick to three or four colours for the overall concept. These will include things like paint colours, brick, timber, windows/guttering colours and every other element that exists there (excluding the landscaping).
Out of these three to four colours, you will generally have one main colour, then one or two less prominent colours. Finally, you should have an accent colour.
Your accent colour is something that contrasts with the other colours on your facade. It could be a much darker or lighter paint or trim colour than the other colours. Or it could be a different coloured material like timber or stone. This accent colour or material is typically “sprinkled” around your facade three to four times.
For example, imagine you’ve painted your facade, done all the trims, painted the gutters and roof and you’re now ready for the accent or contrast colour – the sprinkle. You might choose timber as your sprinkle in which case you might choose a timber front door, timber accents on the letterbox or portico and a timber-look garage door.
There is no hard and fast rule about what colours or materials should be less prominent. Sometimes you need to work in with whatever is existing.
In the example below, I re-designed the house facade keeping the red brick intact (the main colour in this instance). I had to work with the existing classic cream window frames, so used an off-white/very light cream paint colour and timber detailing as my secondary colours on the existing house and new entrance portico. My accent colour was the dark grey coloured roof, the plant pots on the front of the facade and the driveway.
The idea behind the sprinkle strategy is to make your house look more visually interesting and cohesive but not overdone. It gives you a happy balance so that you don’t end up with a jumbled mix of too many colours and materials, nor a lack of interesting elements to break up a plain or uninteresting facade.
Each area of your facade links to the next, giving a cohesive and easy-on-the-eye aesthetic.
If you wish, you can take the sprinkle strategy one step further by repeating your accent colour and material on the inside of your home. This will, of course, depend on your choice of accent, but it will help you create that much-talked-about indoor/outdoor flow for your home.
Jane Eyles-Bennett is one of Australia’s top exterior designers and owner of design firm Hotspace Consultants.
It’s a nice feeling arriving home to a house with a beautiful facade, so if you’re thinking of updating yours you’ll want to get it right.
A common misconception is that the main way to improve your home’s facade is by choosing the right colours. This is important, but there are two other things that are far more important to get right – “visual balance” and “focus”.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking these concepts don’t apply to your home – they apply to every home (if you want it to look great).
Visual balance
It doesn’t mean that everything has to be symmetrical and matching (although in some houses it is), but there has to be a sense of things being even and balanced.
Imagine the difference in visual weight between a small white box and a large black box. The black box is visually heavier because the box is bigger and weightier, and the dark colour is visually heavier. The white box is smaller, lighter in weight and colour, and so is a lighter visual weight.
With that in mind, if you now take a look at your house front on and note everything you see, you should be able to tell if your house is visually balanced. If it is, there will be some sense of an evenness or balance to all the features. However, if you’ve got something like a big garage door, a tree, and/or a lot of detail on one side and then absolutely nothing on the other side, then the house is not visually balanced. Similarly, if you have a double-storey with steps leading up on one side but just a single level on the other side, there is a visual weight difference.
To improve the facade of a house that does not have visual balance, you need to even things out. You can use colour, texture, landscaping or other interesting elements to alter the visual weight of the different components.
Focus
A great facade design aims to have one strong focal point and that’s often your front entrance. If you have too many things drawing attention at the front, you lose focus, so choosing just one strong focal point is critical. The trick here is to make sure the other elements are not competing with the focal point but complementing it in some way.
For example, if your garage door is overly detailed or if there are too many different colours and materials going, this can complicate the scene and detract from the one focal point you want to be your hero.
If you’re lucky, your house might already be visually balanced and have a good focal point. If that’s the case, you can strengthen the focal point or downplay elements that detract from its visual balance.
If not and you’re planning on a considerable update to the facade of your home, then an exterior designer will help you ensure you have these foundational components for your renovation, correctly in place.
Designing an appealing facade means getting the fundamentals of the design right. If the fundamentals (in this case, visual balance and a strong focal point) aren’t there, no matter what colours you choose, your facade will lack that special something that could otherwise have been fabulous.
Like most renovators, you’re probably looking for ways to save money on your renovation. You might think the obvious way to limit costs is to buy your own materials instead of having a tradesperson purchase them for you. Seems logical … doesn’t it?
However, if you look beyond the surface, you will see that buying your own materials isn’t always a wise move.
Why?
Well, let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re renovating your bathroom and you’ve bought your own tapware. Whether the plumbing is staying where it is or being relocated, once the tiling is done, all the plumber has to do is fit the new taps.
But what happens if something goes wrong after the taps are installed? Does the fault lie with the product or with the installation? Who pays to rectify the situation?
In all likelihood, if you had purchased your own products and handed them to the plumber to install, you would have to foot the bill to remove the tiles, change or fix the plumbing components that had failed, re-waterproof the walls, then retile the walls. However, if the plumber had purchased the tapware under your instruction, he or she should take full responsibility for fixing the problem – even if it involves paying for more materials and another trade to replace them (in this case tiles and the tiler).
Weigh up the hundreds or thousands of dollars it could cost you to get back into a wall to repair a problem as opposed to the (usually) much smaller extra cost of getting a tradie to buy your selected products and materials on your behalf. It’s a no-brainer really, isn’t it?
Let’s look at another example. Perhaps you’re renovating your kitchen and you’ve saved some dollars by ordering your own bench top. Come installation time, the kitchen installers and the joiner are ready to do their bit, but then you realise the bench top doesn’t fit the space.
Who is at fault here? Unfortunately, it’s you, and in this situation, you would now have to spend more time and money trying to get a new benchtop measured, ordered, delivered and installed.
It’s far better to spend a little extra up front for a tradie to purchase materials than it is to pay to have them fix a problem or redo a job when something goes wrong. And trust me on this one, there are many times things don’t quite work out when you are renovating.
Sometimes, you don’t find out there is an issue until a month or so down the track. What happens if you have a plumbing leak behind the wall in your bathroom or your kitchen bench sags?
If a tradie has purchased the materials, then you have to deal only with them, but if you have purchased the materials, then you have to battle to find out who is at fault – the installer, the manufacturers of the product, or the suppliers of the product.
Having each contractor take responsibility lessens miscommunication, disagreements and problems on site, and may not even cost you more. Often tradies and contractors get a discount from suppliers that they pass on to you.
If they don’t pass it on, try negotiating with them or asking them how much of a discount they can pass on. When it does cost a little bit more, I believe it’s worth paying for the extra peace of mind you get knowing you only have to deal with one person to rectify the situation.
You should still articulate very clearly the product you want the tradie to purchase. Don’t leave them in charge of choosing – they’re not design experts. If you’re having problems selecting colours and products, contact a design professional who will prepare a renovation design with all selections made for you. Then all you have to do is hand that design to your tradie.
Lastly, there are some things that are OK to purchase independently of the tradie, and the best way to decide whether to purchase them yourself is to look at the worst-case scenario. If the installation or reinstallation of a product will have a knock-on effect (e.g. lighting, plumbing, flooring, tiling) then you are better off handing the responsibility for purchasing to the tradie.
Most people would love a designer home – a home that stands out for the right reasons. But how can two houses have similar facades yet one looks fantastic, and the other is largely forgettable?
The answer is simple: houses that stand out for the right reasons have adhered to the Design Principles – a set of design rules that architects and exterior designers have been using for centuries. So what are these principles, and how can you apply them to your property?
Balance
Getting a balanced look for the front of your home is essential to a visually appealing effect, but can be tricky to recover from if you get it wrong. This doesn’t mean that everything has to be symmetrical or equally spaced apart, but there has to be some sense of proportion and spatial balance.
Let’s compare a workers’ cottage versus a more contemporary house with a skillion roof. Both achieve visual balance, but in entirely different ways.
House materials and textures
Whether the structure of your facade changes or not with your renovation, the materials and texture choices are a critical component of a designer-looking home. Textures can be used to add or subtract visual weight and can assist in creating a more balanced look if the structure is not symmetrical.
We use different materials and textures to accentuate some areas and downplay others.
Personal preference definitely comes into play, of course, and should always be the primary driver when selecting your colours, finishes and textures. An exterior designer will be able to advise you on the best way to weave the look and materials you love into the upgrade of your older home’s facade.
The goal is to blend what you have with what you want in order to achieve a cohesive and appealing look that suits the original style of the house.
Exterior colour choices
Getting the colour combination right for your exterior can make or break a renovation.
Colours can be a clever way to provide depth, shorten, widen or lengthen spaces and can even work to camouflage or accentuate different elements. A common misconception is that a lick of paint will solve all, but a great looking home exterior goes much deeper than that.
Your focal point
One of the areas that many renovators forget to take into account is the entryway. You want your entry to draw the eye in and extend a welcome to family and friends.
You could make a bold statement here or gently draw focus by using a colour that is a shade or two lighter or darker than the facade. Clever use of lighting and landscaping is also key to a designer-looking entry and facade.
Landscaping
There is more to landscaping than just filling up garden beds with a plethora of plants.
What are the architectural features of your facade? Is your house top heavy? Is it brick or timber? Is it high-set or low-set? Your landscaping needs to work with and anchor the house, so choose plants that will achieve this.
As a general rule of thumb, choose visually heavier looking plants if your home is made of a heavy material like brick. A house made of a lighter material like timber can get away with using daintier plants or going with plants that are less visually heavy.
Accomplishing a cohesive designer look for your facade is a complicated process, but it is achievable if you employ these design tips. If it all sounds a bit tricky, consider using an exterior designer. It will simplify and speed up the process and will usually save you a heap of money in the long run.
Jane Eyles-Bennett is Australia’s house facade design expert. Click here to view a selection of Before and After facade designs, created for clients of her business Hotspace Consultants.
One of the trickiest things about renovating your home’s facade is the sheer number of choices and decisions to be made.
You might find yourself falling in love with a certain type of material or finish you saw on a show home, while also having your heart set on a design you came across on Pinterest.
But how will your facade look when you combine all the elements you love? Will it be cohesive and contemporary, or disjointed and disappointing?
As a specialist exterior designer, I often see renovators choose stunning features for their home without giving them the space they need to truly shine. Too many different features on a facade can look cluttered and unattractive, and the wrong combination or placement of colours and finishes can destroy the look of your facade entirely.
My tip for solving this problem is to choose one main feature to be the star of the show; the diva who takes centre stage with everything else complementing it, rather than competing against it.
Choose the star feature first and then design everything else around it. One or two “stars” are best. If there are too many standout items with varying textures, shades, colours, patterns, sizes or visual weights, the house begins to look confused and cobbled-together instead of cohesive and well-designed.
When updating your facade, often the focal point will be your entry and front door. You can make your entrance the star feature by adding some minor structural elements, putting in some new feature panelling, or installing a new portico or roof over the top of the entryway.
Then everything else works to visually support your star feature. In the above example, this would be the landscaping, lighting, driveway, paths, fences and the rest of the house exterior.
There are so many fabulous products out there, but you don’t need to use them all at once to make your home look spectacular. Like a beautiful piece of art, if the frame is too ornate it detracts from the picture, so make sure your chosen star feature is accentuated, not diminished by its surroundings.
A fantastic facade renovation need not rely on a big budget, either. The right combination of colours and materials and a clever arrangement of these can completely transform your facade without massive changes to the structure of your existing home.
Jane Eyles-Bennett is Australia’s only exterior designer specialising in house facades. Click here to view a selection of Before and After facade designs, created for clients of her business Hotspace Consultants.
If you’ve ever renovated, you know the costs can add up very quickly, so it pays to put some serious thought into what you want to achieve before you even pick up a hammer or call a trades-person.
Every renovator has a budget to work to and wants to get the biggest bang for their buck, but not everyone knows how to do that.
Having assisted thousands of clients to plan their renovations, here are my top three tips to help you spend your renovation dollar wisely:
Focus your money on key areas
With all the renovation shows around, it’s so easy to let your imagination go wild and come up with fantastic ideas for making over your own home. However, this is also the quickest way to run out of money. If you try to renovate every area, chances are costs will blow out significantly.
You need to be completely objective and focus your money on the areas that will have the biggest impact on the overall feeling or usability of the property. If you’re renovating to live in the property, that’s probably going to be your kitchen, your indoor living spaces and perhaps your outdoor living spaces.
If you’re renovating to sell, keep in mind that not every area warrants renovating because you won’t recoup the money you have outlaid.
In this instance, I would advise focusing your attention on the facade as this is what people see first. If they don’t like the outside, they’re unlikely to look inside and then you’ve lost a buyer before they’ve even set foot on your property.
After the facade, concentrate on the main living spaces because these are the areas where people will spend the most time.
Do the areas you can do well
Don’t spread your money too thin by trying to do everything. Instead, work out which areas get the most use and do these key areas as well as your budget allows.
If you are renovating to live in, enjoy the newly made-over spaces until you can afford to do up the next thing. If you are renovating to sell, it’s better to do the key areas well rather than trying to revamp the entire house and doing everything poorly.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good clean and tidy
Many times I have had clients come to me looking for renovation ideas when all they really needed to do is tidy up and declutter some areas. This can be particularly true for areas like the yard and garage.
Tidying up straggly bushes and gardens, doing a bit of high-pressure cleaning on driveways and putting away or getting rid of clutter can make a huge difference to the external appearance of a property. Do the same with the interior of the house.
Declutter surfaces and rooms first and then focus your money on renovating the key areas of the house.
Ultimately, the aim is to do the best that you can with the areas that will have the greatest impact on your life (if you are living in the property) or on your buyer (if you are selling) and then make the best of the rest.
Jane Eyles-Bennett is one of Australia’s top exterior designers and owner of design firm Hotspace Consultants. Download her FREE “Home Renovators Guide to Planning your Facade Transformation” here.
